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Looks like results are out today. Several people have reported their status in the Tracker.
Can people who got interviewed with Princeton share their experience?
What kind of questions were you asked?
Who did you interview with? Wendell Collins? students? faculty?
This is the same query coming up year after year so it's a good idea to put it out there.
Our staff writer who covers the Princeton program has confirmed that the 800 number is not correct. They in fact have 730 applications this year, their record high.According to the notes in one of the trackers, they interviewed 100 out of 800 applicants this year. I do not know how accurate this is
Last year, they admitted 31 out of 605 applicants, and 25 of those enrolled.
For more detailed numbers, take a look at Collection of Admission Numbers from MFE Programs - Quant Network
Andy when someone applies to Master of Finance at Princeton does he have to mention which track he wanna take!?Our staff writer who covers the Princeton program has confirmed that the 800 number is not correct. They in fact have 730 applications this year, their record high.
The previous high was 664 in 2008.
I interviewed with Wendell Collins. She wanted to know about my leadership experience and mentioned that "We train leaders, not quants," and that while they certainly have a place for quants, that's not their focus.
I don't think they can produce quants: their syllabus shows only one C++ course and none of the hard-core PDE and numerical analysis courses. By "leaders" they mean people who will fit into general financial administration positions (which could be more lucrative than quant positions). The program doesn't seem to be technically demanding so they will probably focus on soft issues like personality, style, comportment and the ability to speak and write.
For C++
ORF 531/FIN 531: Computational Finance in C++
Barring CMU MSCF, none of the other trier-1 programs offer more than one C++ class. I think one C++ class with option to use C++ (along with MATLAB etc.) in other classes give Masters students very good background in C++, atleast to use it in the quant arena.
For PDE/Numerical Analysis
APC 350: Introduction to Partial Differential Equations
APC 503: Analytical Techniques in Differential Equations
APC 518/ORF 518: Applied Stochastic Analysis and Methods
CEE 513: Introduction to Finite-element Methods
CEE 532: Advanced Finite-element Methods
CHE 508: Numerical Methods for Engineers
CHE 530: Systems Engineering [numerical methods]
MAE 503: Basic Numerical Methods for Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations
MAT 301/MAE 305: Mathematics in Engineering I (ODE, PDE)
MAT 302/MAE 306: Mathematics in Engineering II (PDE, complex variables)
If memory serves, Baruch has five courses involving C++. You've got to be kidding that one C++ course is enough.
They're being offered by other departments and are not an integrated part of the finance program. Ideally, students want to see PDEs and numerical analysis in the context of finance. Admit it: the Princeton program is designed to produce generalists. Nothing wrong with that. For quant school, something like Baruch or CMU would probably be a better fit.